Credit:  Wikipedia Commons /  Former rebel leader Guillaume Soro is a candidate in next year’s Presidential Election in  West Africa nation Côte d’Ivoire.

By Gary Raynaldo       DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)  ordered Côte d’Ivoire to suspend its arrest warrant for Guillaume Soro a week before the Republic of Ivory Coast sentenced the former prime minister to 20 years in jail for alleged corruption.  Some say the timing of a court in Ivory Coast’s action yesterday to hand down a 20-year prison term against Soro seems suspicious or a vendetta after the  ACHPR ordering the government of the west Africa nation to cancel the arrest warrant.  It gets even murkier.  Ivory Coast withdrew from the ACHPR this week.  The Republic of Ivory Coast issued an arrest warrant last December 2019  for Guillaume Soro,  who was a candidate in the country’s 2020 presidential election for involvement in an alleged coup plot against the nation.  Public prosecutor Richard Adou announced on  state television at the  time that an arrest warrant had been issued for breaches of state security, receiving stolen public resources and money laundering.  Soro steadfastly denied all the charges, saying they were “trumped up” and part of a political vendetta against him.  The ACHPR also ordered the release 19 of Soro’s  relatives who have been imprisoned four months.

To justify its “unanimous” decision, the ACHPR considers that the arrest warrant and the committal orders are likely to “seriously compromise the exercise of the political rights and freedoms of the applicants”. The court also invokes the risk of “irreparable damage” for the applicants and the “presumption of innocence” in their favor.

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Court) is a continental court established by African countries to ensure the protection of human and peoples’ rights in Africa. It complements and reinforces the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Court was established by virtue of Article 1 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, (the Protocol) which was adopted by Member States of the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in June 1998. The Protocol came into force on 25 January 2004.

“Pour peu qu’il y ait des magistrats intègres, le droit s’embellit, la justice s’anoblit. La démocratie et l’État de droit deviennent alors une réalité. La Côte d’Ivoire doit y parvenir tôt ou tard.”

-Guillaume Soro

Je remercie Dieu ce jour.
Il a inspiré les magistrats INTÈGRES de la Cour Africaine qui viennent de rendre une décision historique. Ils ont honoré leur serment en disant le droit qui rétablit mes compagnons et moi dans nos droits. pic.twitter.com/jJq3Q8FF2x

— Guillaume K. Soro (@SOROKGUILLAUME) April 22, 2020

Pour peu qu’il y ait des magistrats intègres, le droit s’embellit, la justice s’anoblit. La démocratie et l’État de droit deviennent alors une réalité. La Côte d’Ivoire doit y parvenir tôt ou tard. #GKS. https://t.co/0JUjLq0fsz

— Guillaume K. Soro (@SOROKGUILLAUME) April 27, 2020